Soo Ji Kim | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Research trends in music-based interventions in neonatal intensive care units: a text mining and topic modeling study

Background: Music-based interventions are increasingly used in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), but the literature remains heterogeneous in intervention type, provider role, and research focus. This study examined research trends in NICU music-based intervention studies using text mining. Methods: We analyzed 83 abstracts from peer-reviewed studies published between 1998 and 2025. Methods included preprocessing, RAKE-based keyphrase extraction, keyword frequency analysis, temporal trend analysis, intervention-type comparison, and latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling. The optimal number of topics was determined using the CaoJuan2009, Arun2010, and Deveaud2014 metrics. Results: Study volume increased steadily over time, with nearly half (38/83) published from 2020 onward. Early studies focused on passive music listening and short-term physiological outcomes, whereas recent studies increasingly examined singing, live music, and parent-involved interventions. Keyword analysis showed a shift from physiological stability and behavioral responses toward neurodevelopmental outcomes, parental emotional well-being, and parent-infant interaction. Music medicine studies emphasized passive auditory stimulation and immediate physiological outcomes, whereas music therapy studies addressed broader developmental, relational, and psychosocial topics. Topic modeling identified four major themes, with parent-involved physiological regulation and stress reduction the most frequent dominant topic. Conclusions: NICU music-based intervention research is becoming more interdisciplinary. The field has expanded from immediate physiological stabilization to broader developmental, relational, and psychosocial goals. Future work should clarify the distinction between music therapy and music medicine and promote interdisciplinary collaboration in NICU care.

stat.AP↗

arXiv2024

Timed material self-assembly controlled by circadian clock proteins

Active biological molecules present a powerful, yet largely untapped, opportunity to impart autonomous regulation to materials. Because these systems can function robustly to regulate when and where chemical reactions occur, they have the ability to bring complex, life-like behavior to synthetic materials. Here, we achieve this design feat by using functionalized circadian clock proteins, KaiB and KaiC, to engineer time-dependent crosslinking of colloids. The resulting material self-assembles with programmable kinetics, producing macroscopic changes in material properties, via molecular assembly of KaiB-KaiC complexes. We show that colloid crosslinking depends strictly on the phosphorylation state of KaiC, with kinetics that are synced with KaiB-KaiC complexing. Our microscopic image analyses and computational models indicate that the stability of colloidal super-structures depends sensitively on the number of Kai complexes per colloid connection. Consistent with our model predictions, a high concentration stabilizes the material against dissolution after a robust self-assembly phase, while a low concentration allows circadian oscillation of material structure. This work introduces the concept of harnessing biological timers to control synthetic materials; and, more generally, opens the door to using protein-based reaction networks to endow synthetic systems with life-like functional properties.

cond-mat.soft↗